We are surrounded by technology. Every element of our daily lives, every personal or professional interaction, is delivered through the omnipresent lens of technology. In On! The Future of Now, author Aaron Balick explores what he calls the Human Being Operating System (HBOS). It was the technology within our own brains that allowed for creation of the technologies that surround us today. “Technology isn’t something that happened to us,” Balick explains. “Our own very human motivations were the spark that launched the technical revolution.” Because we are social creatures, it follows that much of our technology has been developed to manage our complex social relationships.

Balick describes how the narrow apertures of our technologies doesn’t allow us to experience the fullness of human interaction, like eye contact, touch and tone. As more of our interactions move into the digital realm, we can easily find ourselves hiding from the complexities of social relationships behind the narrow field of view of technology. In his piece, Aaron explores the consequences of outsourcing our relational interactions to the technological cloud.

*This post is part of a series highlighting personal stories and key themes from our new book, On! The Future of Now. Order your copy of On! The Future of now here. Proceeds to support Charity: Water.

About Aaron Balick

Dr. Aaron Balick is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, and media and social networking consultant working in London. He is the author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking: Connected-up Instantaneous Culture and the Self. http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=32929&MATCH=1

About On! The Future of Now

Published in partnership with Nokia and curated by Toby Daniels and Craig Hepburn, On! The Future of Now is a collection of essays and personal stories from leading thinkers, including best-selling author and entrepreneur Seth Godin; Cindy Gallop, founder of Make Love Not Porn; Jonah Peretti, founder and CEO of BuzzFeed and Leah Busque, founder of TaskRabbit.